Our patrons

Melly Still

Melly Still has worked as designer and co-director on many productions, including the RSC’s version of ‘Tales from Ovid’, and ‘Haroun and the Sea of Stories’ by Salman Rushdie at the Royal National Theatre.

Lord Ramsbotham

General David Ramsbotham is a retired British Army officer, former Adjutant General and ADC General to Her Majesty the Queen. General Ramsbotham later served as Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons. He is currently a member of the Top Level Group of UK Parliamentarians for Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and Non-Proliferation.

Baroness Helena Kennedy QC

Helena Kennedy is one of Britain’s most distinguished lawyers. She’s spent her professional life giving voice to those who have the least power within the system, championing civil liberties and promoting human rights. She has used many public platforms to argue with passion, wit, and humanity for social justice. She has also written and broadcast on a wide range of issues, from medical negligence to terrorism to the rights of women and children.

Lord Lucas

Lord Lucas is on the Advisory Board of AC Grayling’s New College of the Humanities. He became a Fellow of Charter Accountants (FCA) in 1976, and is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Mercers.

Sir Richard Tilt

Following a period teaching in Stockholm and Nottingham, Sir Richard started his career in the Prison Service as Assistant Governor in 1966. He was Governor of a number of prisons including Bedford and Gartree, rising to Director General of the Prison Service in 1995. Sir Richard retired from the Prison Service in 1999 and in the same year was appointed a Knight Bachelor.

Professor Renos Papadopoulos

Renos Papadopoulos is a professor of analytical psychology in the Center for Psychoanalytic Studies at the University of Essex. He serves as director of the university’s Center for Trauma, Asylum and Refugees (CTAR), as well as a member of its Human Rights Centre. He is also a consultant clinical psychologist at the Tavistock Clinic in London.

Joelle Taylor

Joelle Taylor is a professional spoken word artist, published poet and playwright. She is also the founder and Artistic Director of SLAMbassadors UK, the national youth slam championships administered by the Poetry Society.

About us

“This course just opens your eyes to what’s really important. It helps you understand how to be a better father. It helps you to see how being in prison really affects your whole family and how everyone suffers.”

Fathers Inside Graduate, HMP Lewes 2013

Our story so far...

1993

1993 – 1996

Safe Ground is founded by Antonia Rubinstein and Polly Freeman in 1993, then established as a charity in 1995.

1997 – 1999

Men in prison at HMP Woodhill create a drugs prevention video ‘Ryan’s Choice’ for year 6 school children (1997/98)

‘Parents for the 21st Century’ collaboration with the prison service begins in 1999. This helps absent fathers, whom are in prison, learn how they can improve their parenting skills for children aged 6 to 12.

2000 – 2003

Film ‘Blinda’ is created by men in prison at HMP Wandsworth – the story concerns Frank, who is serving a 3-year sentence and has cut off all communication with his 8-year-old son Wayne.

‘Blinda’ wins an International Visual Communication Award in 2001.

Family Man launches at HMP Wandsworth in early 2003.

2004 – 2006

Family Man and Fathers Inside are firmly established, raising the profile of parenting and family relationships in prisons.

2016

Safe Ground turns 21! An Open House event is held for the public to learn more about the organisation’s history

‘MOVING. HOME.’ Symposium is held at the National Theatre, exploring the meaning of ‘home’ with a range of panellists, including Safe Ground alumni and Baroness Helena Kennedy QC

A Justice Data Lab analysis finds that Fathers Inside participants are 40% less likely to re-offend than their counterparts.

2017

Safe Ground win the Longford Prize for contribution to penal reform

Officers’ Mess is delivered at HMP Berwyn, with 86% of participants agreeing that the course made them think about how they respond in different situations

2018

The Who Am I? programme in partnership with Ormiston Families’ Transforming Rehabilitation is rolled out in probation sites across the East of England.

Future

Sign up to our newsletter

Email Address

Get Involved with Safe Ground

We'd love to hear from you and answer any questions you may have. Send us an email,
make your specialist training requests, stay in touch, check out our YouTube channel
and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.